nLight further boosted by laser weapons momentum

nLight, the developer of high-energy lasers and systems based in Camas, Washington, has delivered its highest ever quarterly sales revenues as demand for laser weapons continues to rise.

For the three months ending March 31 the firm posted sales of $80.2 million, up 55 per cent on the same period last year, with revenues for its aerospace and defense division up 69 per cent at $55 million.

That improved top-line performance also boosted company profitability, with nLight able to post a pre-tax income of $0.7 million, swinging from a pre-tax loss of $8 million a year ago.

Long-time CEO Scott Keeney told an investor conference call discussing the latest developments:

“We remain encouraged by the pipeline of directed energy opportunities, including follow-on production content, upgrades to existing platforms, and new prototype programs that should position us for continued growth over the next several years.

“Importantly, we have seen the US government follow up on these program successes with increases to budgets associated with directed energy.”

Keeney noted that the US government had budgeted around $400 million in both 2027 and 2028 for directed energy prototypes and procurement, but added that this figure increases to $1 billion for both years if multi-100 kilowatt prototypes that are expected to be funded through the “science and technology” portion of the budget are included.

Hades launch

That growing clamor for laser weapons is a global phenomenon, and shortly before announcing its latest financial results nLight said it would be expanding its operations in Turin, Italy, to support increased demand for locally assembled solutions.

“As directed energy moves closer to operational deployment across NATO and other allied forces, proximity to our growing base of international customers and partners is increasingly important,” said Keeney.

“Expanding our [Turin] operations enables us to assemble and support advanced laser solutions in‑region, accelerate customer engagement, and strengthen alignment with European industrial and defense ecosystems.”

nLight has also launched a new family of high-energy laser and effector products dubbed “Hades”, with a focus on enabling scalability from tens of kilowatts for counter-drone applications, to hundreds of kilowatts for more advanced threats such as missiles.

“By unifying our directed‑energy offerings into a single, scalable product family, Hades delivers production‑ready laser weapon solutions that achieve unmatched power scaling, superior beam brightness, and advanced atmospheric correction - bringing the brightest possible energy on target for the fastest kills at range,” noted Keeney.

Hades is based around semiconductor laser diodes, fiber amplifiers, beam combiners, and atmospheric correction technology all developed and manufactured in-house by nLight, using the firm’s patented and proprietary coherent beam combination (CBC) approach.

The company says that the systems offer high optical efficiency, beam quality, and reliability in ruggedized, field‑serviceable configurations, while each system can be integrated with existing beam directors, sensors, and battle management architectures - enabling rapid deployment across a broad range of military platforms and battlefield environments, with a 70 kilowatt-class system the first to be launched.

“One example of this power scaling is the work we are doing on the production of the one megawatt CBC high-energy laser as part of HELSI 2,” Keeney told investors.

“We remain on track for this program, and importantly, this laser is based on the same architecture that we use across all our Hades portfolio of CBC lasers, demonstrating the scalability of the platform to deliver solutions that address a wide range of mission scenarios - counter-[drone], counter-cruise missile, and more.”

Stock price rises again

Looking ahead, Keeney and his executive team say that they expect sales revenues in the current quarter to be around the $78 million mark, partly reflecting a drop-off in sales to cutting and welding applications as the company exits those markets and prioritizes defense.

Following the latest update nLight’s stock price continued its recent rise and currently stands at close to $83 having doubled in value since the start of 2026, and is up from only $13 this time last year.

That growing valuation enabled the company to raise net proceeds of more than $190 million from a follow-up stock offering in February.

“We intend to use a portion of these proceeds to build out and equip our new 50,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Longmont, Colorado, invest ahead of our demand and supply chain, and increase staffing to help accelerate new directed energy product development,” said Keeney.